With due respects Mr. Ramiz Raja, you are wrong!

No sooner did Ramiz Raja express outrage at the spot fixing scandal, did he backtrack on one case and ask sympathy for Mohammad Amir. Geoff Lawson, the ex-Pakistan coach joined soon.

Their strawman defense? Mohammad Amir comes from a poor background and he was 'ensnarled' in the controversy. They couldn't have played a worse card - "he comes from poor background, he wants to buy a generator for his village!" - Oh! they did!

There have been numerous cricketers who have started from the bottom of the pyramid - Irfan Pathan & Yusuf Pathan are top in my list of mind recall. Vinodh Kambli was another such cricketer from a stark background. Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Kapil Dev amongst others come from strictly middle class backgrounds. None of them took to spot fixing and receiving money for bowling no-balls or batting maiden overs.

While a certain amount of blame has to be apportoined to the suits running cricket in Pakistan, Amir had the choice to say no and go to the press. He took the path of least resistance - chalta hai and hence is as guilty or innocent as the others. He was happy to receive the cash when it was in the dark and turns on an innocent face as soon as his trick gets public.

The third angle and the most intruiging is that PCB wants to take action only after legal proceedings take place. My dear suits, that is a such a weak defense of your action. The laws of the game is more stringent than that of criminal liabilities. How can anyone prove that the betting was a criminal activity? ACC head feels so. PCB believes it can let the legal recourse meander and when the charges are diluted and the perpetrators go unpunished, absolve themselves of any action against the tainted cricketers. Don't fear for cricket as they will definitely hire a retired judge to give semblence to their pre-determined action.

The suits have it all wrong. Cricket laws are far more stringent than the public court. Else, how many of us face charges or reduction in salaries because we finished our sales presentation in 70 mins instead of 60. How many folks face fines and suspensions because we disagree with our bosses and don't shy away from telling them. Poor Virat Kohli, he should have revered to spot fixing instead of staring an umpire for 15 seconds for a dodgy decision. He would have received lesser punishment. The laws of cricket are very stringent on disrepute to the game.

And Mr. Ramiz Raja knows it. In spite of the same, he wants to present the strawman defense so that they check the reaction for potential let-off of Mohammed Amir. Poor Salman Butt & Asif - they should have been a little younger to have got this special treatment

Travesty in Delhi ...

Nope, i amn't refering to the Delhi pitch ., though a lot of blame should go there  ...

...Nope, i amn't refering to Kumar Sangakkara gesticulating to this teammates to escalate a ridiculous delivery and use it as an excuse to stop the match ... i felt it was childish, but Sanga's loyalty is towards his players and rescuing them from a bad situation ...

... Nope, i am't refering to Arun Jaitley or any of the other politicians who don't have the moral responsibility of a fiasco ... no politician in the recent past across the world has ever realized his shortcoming and owed to it, why sacrifice only Jaitley for it?

... Nope, i am't refering to the 2 teams packing off to their hotels within an hour of leaving the field ... showcasing a lack of respect for paying public will catch up, but not today ...

... The target of my ire is Match Referee AG Hurst. How can he not realize the follies of the pitch before the start of the game? If he had as much knowledge as me on the behaviours of various pitches, he can stay home and i can be the globe-trotting match referee. The second charge against him, how can you allow 23.3 overs to be bowled before you deem the match dangerous? I don't think earlier matches lasted this long. Third, did you see the ball that triggered the complaint - it was pitched in the bowler's side of the wicket. Outside the subcontinent, you would have seen the same reaction. Foruth, please see the various replays (i have seen, thanks to Indian News Channels playing it endlessly) - most of the deliveries that kicked up were from short of the length deliveries and not from length. If the bowlers have to adjust to batting paradise tracks (400 runs tracks), why can't the batsmen fed with some questions? Most of the batsmen getting hit were playing forward to a short of length delivery, not on their backfoot. Fifth, This isn't your first series in India (second actually, the previous one was also the Ind-SL 2005 series), how does this pitch behave differently to a fifth day subcontinent wicket? Sixth, show me one wicket that was from an ackward delivery: Tharanga leaving the gate open, Dilshan fishing outside off, Sanga's lazy uppish drive, Jayasuriya outfoxed with a slider and the Samaraweera's running indecision - none of them can be attributed to the pitch conditions

As like your predecessors, you will hide your imcompetent decision behind ICC's opaqueness. This match shouldn't have been called off. You should asked Sanga & Dhoni to quit whining and asked them to continue with the match. You should have told the captains that the pitches in India & the subcontinent in the 1990s weren't any different and matches were conducted fine, thank you very much.

27th December 2009 should go down in history as  a watershed event in Indian cricket. It is the day when ICC rubber-stamped BCCI's move to create batting pitches. ICC & BCCI have sent clear signal to the next generation cricketers. Please become batsmen, don't contemplate about being a bowler. Matches will be called off if we don't see 300+ run ODI wickets ...

The pitch and the various players aren't blameless. However, the match should have gone on. 

Was South Africa robbed in the ICC Awards?

I believed in the afirmative and checked if the cold, hard facts supports the contention.

World Test XI: Gautam Gambhir (India), Andrew Strauss (England), AB de Villiers (South Africa), Sachin Tendulkar (India), Thilan Samaraweera (Sri Lanka), Michael Clarke (Australia), MS Dhoni (India, capt & wk), Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh), Mitchell Johnson (Australia), Stuart Broad (England), Dale Steyn (South Africa), Harbhajan Singh (India, 12th man)

I used Cricinfo Statsguru with the following conditions - 600+ runs, 50+ average, 3 or more hundreds. The list shows: Clarke (17/1440/53/5), Strauss (14/1323/60/6), Gambhir (8/1269/84/5), Samaraweera (8/1067/60/3), Tendulkar (9/896/55/3), Dilshan (8/848/71/4), Jayawardena (8/802/57/3), Sarwan (9/782/60/4), Gayle (9/698/53/3), AB de Villiers (8/603/60/3)

That clears the air about South African batsmen not making to this list. Only 1 managed to sneak in from a stats perspective. So, if there were test batsmen who could complain, it should be the Sri Lankans who managed only 1 entry though they had 3 folks in the above said shortlist. The reason is that they played Pakistan (away, 2 matches), Bangladesh (2 matches), Pakistan (home, 3), NZ (home, 1) - not strong opposition. 

Test Team Wicketkeeper:

My pick would need at least 300 runs, 40+ average, 10 dismissals, at least 2 50+ scores. I shortlisted 4 candidates after eliminating players who had too many matches & too few dismissals (Matt Prior) or too few matches (Pak, SL & WI WKs). McCullum (10/555/34.68/2h,3f/38-35c+3s), Brad Haddin (16/1028/41/2h,3f/55-54c+1s), Mark Boucher (8/316/28/1h,1f/26-24c+2s), Dhoni (8/554/0h,7f,28-24c+4s). 

Once again we can eliminate any claims of anti-SA bias. Dhoni got the vote because he led India to series win in NZ and he displayed some consistent batting. However, i feel for Haddin. He got robbed. Dhoni won on star power than stats power!

Bowlers:

For the bowlers, my criteria was 40 wickets, less than 3.5 RPO, less than 65 SR. 5 made the cut - Johnson (17/80/27/3.12), Siddle (12/49/29/3), Swann (12/48/30/3), Shakib Al Hassan (8/45/23/2.67), Broad (13/40/31/3.3).

Of this list, Hasan, Broad and Johnson made the list. While i understand Johnson & Hasan, i don't get Broad. Steyn missed the list because he had a higher RPO - 3.62 while his remaining stats look good (8/42/27). Bhajji missed the earlier cut because he had 39 wickets (8/39/27/2.5). 

Broad should consider himself very lucky. Not only did Swann have better bowling figures, his batting figures weren't bad either - 12/354/35/0h,3f compared to Broad's 13/395/26/0h,2f. I would have had put Bhajji in the team and have Siddle/Swann be the 12th man.

World ODI XI Team: Virender Sehwag (Ind), Chris Gayle (WI), Kevin Pietersen (Eng), Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL), Yuvraj Singh (Ind), Martin Guptill (NZ), MS Dhoni (Ind, captain, WK), Andrew Flintoff (Eng), Nuwan Kulasekara (SL), Ajantha Mendis (SL), Umar Gul (Pak), 12th man: Thilan Thushara (SL)

ODI Batsmen criteria: 400 runs, 40+ ave, 80+ SR, 4 or more fifties. Dhoni (24/967/60/9f/86SR), Yuvraj (24/949/48/4h,3f/106), Gayle (21/942/50/4h,2f,110) and Sehwag (14/782/60/2h,6f,128) are a cut above competition and invited themselves to the party. Guptill (12/448/56/1h,3f/87) made it on superior average. No idea why Dilshan (12/473/47/1h,3f/88) made it over  Hussey (18/699/54/0h,7f/87) and Amla (13/549/50/1h,3f/88) - both of them should consider themselves unlucky. The luckiest person on the list isn't Dilshan but Pieterson (16/440/44/1h,2f/93) who wasn't even the best player on the English team. That honor should go to Owain Shah (18/535/44.5/0h,5f/86). These records compare to Taylor (18/591/45.5/1h,4f/81) and AB de Villiers (18/614/44/oh,5f/88). Slight anti-SA bias but not too much for the huge uproar that we can expect.

ODI All-rounder criteria: 200 runs, 10 wickets. 17 players qualify but 3 folks seperated themselves by having Batting Ave above 35 & Bowling ave below 26. Flintoff (14m/304r/38ba.av/23w/20ba.av) seperates himself in this group that includes Duminy (19/476/37/10/25.4) and Shakib Al Hasan (22/665/37/30/25.6) though Hasan would have won any other year.

ODI Bowler's criteria: 25 wickets, Bow Ave less than 35, RPO less than 6. 12 players made the cut. Mendis (22/46/16/4.15), Kulasekara (24/43/19/4.33), Umar Gul (12/26/20/5) blow the opposition away. Outside this batch, there is a lot of close competition between Thushara (22/34/21/4.7), Steyn (16/28/24/5), Muralitharan (22/36/21.6/4.5), Johnson (16/28/24/5). The 12th man spot was a toss-up and i think the panel made a tough choice. I don't think anyone can make a case one way or the other on the 12th man.

In summary - there doesn't seem to be anti-SA bias. SA didn't have a few people contributing while others suffered slumps. Everyone in the team contributed their bit and hence their rise in Team rankings (the other explanation is that the Aussies slipped and hence elevating SA to the top spot!). They shouldn't show outrage for not having more players because they didn't play a lot of tests and there weren't standouts in the tests that they played. In the ODIs, there is a case for inclusion of Amla, but that's about the amount of under-representation from SA in the World teams.

My changes: 

• Test Team: Haddin replaces Dhoni as WK. Bhajji replaces Broad who goes out completely. Siddle becomes the 12th man. Captaincy to Shakib.
  
• ODI Team: Amla & Hussey replace Dilshan & Pieterson.
  

All-Time India's Test XI

Cricinfo has started a country specific All-Time Test XI starting with Australia's All-Time Test XI. The process for England's All-Time Test XI is under way. I decided to jumpstart India's All-Time Test XI.

To whittle from the list of 260, i decided to have a minimum stats critieria

• Wickets (Min): 150 (Post-1950s); 100 (Pre-1950s) 
  
• Runs (Min): 2000 @ Ave (Min): 40 (30% leeway for Pre-1950s)
  
• WK: 100 Dismissals
  
• All Rounder: 75% of Min. Wickets & Runs
  

There are 6 categories - Openers (2), Middle Order (3), All-Rounder (1), Wicketkeeper (1), Pace (2) & Spin (2)

The following is the list of shortlisted candidates:

• Openers: V Merchant, P Roy, S Gavaskar, NS Sidhu, V Sehwag, G Gambhir
  
• Middle-order: V Hazare, P Umrigar, V Manjrekar, C Borde, D Sardesai, MAK Pataudi, G Viswanath, M Amarnath, D Vengsarkar, M Azharuddin, S Tendulkar, R Dravid, SC Ganguly, VVS Laxman, 
  
• Wicketkeeper: S Kirmani, F Engineer, K More, MS Dhoni
  
• All-rounder: Vinoo Mankad, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri,  
  
• Pace: Srinath, Kapil Dev, Z Khan, 
  
• Spin: Subhash Gupte, B Chandrasekhar, BS Bedi, A Kumble, H Singh, EAS Prasanna, S Venkataraghavan

The reasons for leaving out some folks - K Srikkanth (Average below 30; Only 2 Test Centuries); CK Nayadu (no Test Centuries), Lala Amarnath (Average below 25), N Contractor (only 1 century), Jaisimha (Average around 30), C Chauhan (no century)

Some folks don't pass the stats but are in the list: Vijay Merchant (brilliant batsman but played only 10 Tests, 7 as opener), P Roy (Pre-Sunny best Opener?)

Analysis & Selection:

Openers: Only 2 stand out as outstanding. Sunny & Sehwag. Roy & Merchant played in an era where India wasn't dominant and known for brilliant individual but inconsistent overall performances. Sidhu was good but weak against pace attack. Gambhir has the potential to challenge Sunny & Sehwag but has a long way to go.

Verdict: Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag 

Middle-order: Look how packed the middle-order is! There are 14 contenders and from them we get it all - class (Ganguly), grace (Laxman, Azhar), endurance (Dravid), technique (Viswanath). In this list, i think only Laxman & Amarnath never captained the side. As tough as the choice seems, the cream has a way of finding itself seperated from the remaining greats. 

Verdict: Tendulkar (no reasons required), Dravid (stellar record, match winning performances) and G Viswanath (IMHO, Tendulkar in the pre-Tendulkar era!)

All-Rounders: Indian Test cricket has had only 2 great groups - Middle order batsmen, Spinners. But the all-rounder class is the most barren. Ravi Shastri was good but not great. Pajji was the best we ever had and Mankad has stats pretty similar to Kapil Dev. Mankad was a bit better with the bat & Kapil with the ball.

Verdict: Vinoo Mankad, Kapil Dev (Kapil selected as All-Rounder/Pacer)

Wicketkeeper: While Dhoni might look the parts of the winner, i don't think this is as easy a selection. Primarily because Dhoni hasn't achieved his potential in Test cricket. Otherwise, what explains the fact that Dhoni has only 1 century in 37 test matches. Farookh Engineer has the advantage of being an opening batsman while Kirmani was the best pure Wicketkeeper we had. Dhoni has the potential to take this spot down the road.

Verdict: Farookh Engineer

Pacers: The less said, the better. There are just 3 Indian paces with more than 100 Test wickets - Kapil Dev, Javagal Srinath & Zaheer Khan. I will go with Srinath for now. Khan has the potential to take this spot in a few years.

Verdict: Javagal Srinath

Spinners: Rich crop here as well. Kumble is a shoo-in because of the fact that he won the most matches for India. The fight amongst the rest is pretty intense. My vote for the present is for Bishen Singh Bedi but Bhajji is already on the rear-view mirror. If Bhajji can perform at the highest level over the next 3-5 years, the spot will be his.

Verdict: Anil Kumble, Bishen Singh Bedi

India's Test XI: Sunny, Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar, Vishwanath, Mankad, Kapil, Engineer, Srinath, Kumble, Bedi.

Just Missed: Dhoni, Kirmani, EAS Prasanna, B Chandrasekhar, Bhajji, Gupte, Vengsarkar!

MS Gill - Be our Sports Minister, not Cricket Minister

Dear Mr. Gill.,

A few years back, you retired as Cheif Election Commissioner of India (CEC). Having reached that post, i hope that i can deduct that you are good in beauracratic activities. Lesson 101 of beauracracy states that you need to identify the boundaries of your role. 

Saina Nehwal reached heights that no Indian has ever reached. She became the first Indian to win a Super Series Badminton tournament. And i see no congratulation statement from you when you took time to praise Pakistan's T20 World Championship victory. 

Pray, Mr. Minister - Can you stop being India's Minister for Cricket Affairs and become India's minister for Sports & Youth Affairs. (and practice what you preach to others - Encourage sports other than cricket)

And by the way, i find it an insult that Saina received a cash prize of Rs 200,000 when each member of the 2007 T20 Championship victory earned Rs. 8,000,000 (apart from Porsche & Mercedes Benz cars), that's 120,000,000 for the 15 member squad - apparently, Cricket is worth 600 times more than Badminton in India.

Will the Minister take some action

Your's Sincerly

A True Sports Fan

IPL 2009 - Glory to the oldies ...

As i posted earlier (closer to the midway mark), i made a quick framework to measure batting & bowling success in the IPL. 

• For batting, i considered: Runs, Average, Strike rate 
• For bowling, i considered: Wickets, Average, Run per over, Strike rate

I worked around the formulas and finally came across a measure that i felt gave equal weightage to batting & bowling and applied it across IPL 2008 & 2009. I didn't take fielding stats into consideration. Also, i didn't give weightages to 50s, 100s, 4Ws, 5Ws. I shall try and work something out later.

But as it stands today, IPL 2009's best batsmen & bowlers don't play any cricket outside IPL & probably backyard cricket - M Hayden & Anil Kumble. The contrast with which they reached the pinnacle is huge: Hayden, post match 4/5 dominated batting in IPL 2009. Kumble had a great first match and then lagged in the ratings (never dropping out of Top 10 though) and his final performance enabled him to pip RP Singh (who was Top 2 from the time i started tracking)

Some notes:

• To me, 40 is the score of a good performer. There were 24 in 2008 & 21 in 2009 with scores above 40. There are six players who scored 40+ in both IPLs: Rohit Sharma, Gilly, Irfan Pathan (that surprised me!), Symonds, Raina, Amit Mishra (another supriser). MS Dhoni just missed it for this year (38.8 compared to 59.4 last year) and Hayden played too few matches (4, i think) last year to get to 40 (he finished with 36 still!)
• Last year's top 10 included 5 batsmen, 2 all-rounders (Watson & Yusuf) and 3 bowlers. This year, the tide shifted to the bowlers - 7 bowlers, 1 all-rounder (Rohit Sharma) and 2 batsmen (Hayden & de Villiers)

2009 Top performers:

2008 Top performers:

SRK - Enough fooling around ...

Hi SRK.,

I know it is your money that you plonked on the table for the Kolkata team. However, what is happening with KKR is of concern to the entire cricketing fraternity. While you have the choice of appointing a candidate of your choice for coach, your current coach has no excuses for his excesses or his behavior. If i said that he has turned your team into Page 2 material, it is charitable at best.

And now, allegations of racism. Will you constitute an enquiry? How can someone say that against your fellow countryman and you remain silent in word and action? Have you forgotten that our independence is less than 62 years old? 

Tell me something, why does this team need more coaches that Indian national team. Since you claim that you don't know a lot about Cricket, let me tell you something. Ganguly was not only the best captain India ever had, he is also renowned for his eye for talent & grooming youngsters. Evidence include Zaheer, Yuvraj, Bhajji, Dhoni and M Vijay. In short, he is someone you aspire to have as coach - not Buchanan. Have you heard anything controversial from Gary Kirsten? Have you heard off-the-record comments from him ever? That's the sign of a good coach. Buchanan is repulsed by media as fish is repulsed from water.

Do us a favor and fire Buchanan & his team of 9 coaches. For crying out loud, there are just 11 Indians filling the 7 spots in the team. Don't you think 9 coaches is overkill. You would have heard of this - Too many cooks spoil the broth.

Make the changes today.

Amazing Blogger

Trishani Doshi, you are an amazing writer.

Cricinfo - If i were you, i would give Trishani Doshi a multi-year contract after tearing the IPL-only contract. 

Sample of what readers get to enjoy:

What we're lacking is a bit of drama. KKR (the top source of drama so far) have sort of slunk into oblivion. Nothing new except the possible sacking of John Buchanan. Yawn. Preits and Shilps haven't got into a catfight, there have been no wardrobe malfunctions, and all that chaddi-buddy camaraderie with the players (very charming at first) now makes me want to vomit. How about a sledge now and then, a slap, something. We need a bit of masala to up the momentum, and a few injured fingers and thunderclouds (albeit dramatically beautiful ones), aren't going to cut it. Mr Modi, please could you orchestrate something? The battle of the cheerleaders, perhaps, or round two of the Bhajji-Sreesanth battle. Maybe even a stream of a thousand Bollywood dancers pouring onto the pitch during a strategic time-out to do an unexpected jhatak to "Jai Ho"? Make it as mad as you possibly can.

Piling on Buchanan

Let me the 178,453rd critic of John Buchanan.

While i had a lot of respect for him before the IPL started, it has quickly eroded. He was lucky to be where he was, as Aussie national coach lording over immense talent - Waugh twins, Ponting, Gillie, McGrath, Hayden, Martyn, Langer, Gillespie and Clark. Now that he doesn't have a billion-dollar roster, his true colors are out in the open for everyone to see.

Buchanan now wants to increase foreign players from 4 to god-knows how many more! Already, Lalit Modi has shot it down & Dileep Premachandran's (of Cricinfo) criticism has been even more direct - calling Buchanan a "whiner" and right fully so.

The following are the errors in the way of Buchanan. There is an endless list, but this is just a start

• Ganguly! The list starts with Ganguly. Ganguly was & is India's best captain, master tactician & has one of the best eye for talent. His latest talent-spot is M Vijay, who stood-in for Gambhir during the Indo-Aus series and has shown top-tier talent in the one match he got. Ganguly is getting up there in age but there is a better way of using him than discarding him like that. He could have been the operational face of the team for a long time (and will still be!) and mentor for Indian players. Instead, by antagonizing him, Buchanan has shown his immaturity.
• Ishant Sharma is one of the best bowlers in the business. If Gary Kirsten & Dhoni can get the best out of him, why not you?
• Support staff - Remember just one law. Support staff is named so, because they don't get onto the field and face the opposition. There is only so much they can do. They can never supersede players. Never ever!
• Shah Rukh Khan: Seriously, how can this team spend $600k on Mortaza. His base price was $50k and would have been available for $150k max. The remaining $450k could have been used on local talent. Remember, 7 players must be Indian; Only 4 foreigners. Spend more on Indian talent
• Ajit Agarkar: The biggest underperformer that Indian cricket has ever produced. He always dishes one if not two 'four-balls' every over. His current stat line shows that - 3 wickets @40 average, 10 RPO and 24 SR. Nearly the worst of any specialist bowler

Buchanan, i wouldn't be sorry to see you go. The best thing with your term in IPL is that your halo is burst & ruined.  And that's the way it should be ...

IPL - Best Players in 2009 are ...

Raina, Hayden & Malinga ... the best-player, batsman & bowler of IPL 2008 till date.

I created a Value Index for batting & bowling. Batting VI = Product of (No. of runs, Strike Rate, Average)/20000 & Bowling VI = Product of (Wickets, (40-Average), (12-RPO), (30-SR)). Get in touch with me if you want to debate the formula. LVI indicates the VI for the previous year.

The following is the list of best performing bowlers & batsmen in IPL 2009:

Criteria: Min. of 100 runs. Missing this mark are Sehwag, Gambhir, Pieterson, Flintoff & McCullam.

Malinga has amazing stat line - 11 wickets at average shade below 10, RPO of 4.83 and SR of less than 12. Thus, he takes a wicket once every 2 overs giving less than 10 runs in those overs. Brilliant. If he continues his performance, he will most likely even overshadow the spectacular performance from Sohail Tanveer last year.

Spinners have done well too - Jakati, Ojha, Kumble, Hodge & Raina have done well. Overall, bowler's performance this year is likely to upstage last year. Isn't that expected - South African pitches aren't the featherbeds of the subcontinent.

To compare, find the tables for last year's performance - Shane Watson, Stuart Marsh and Sohail Tanveer were the best player, batsman & bowler from last year's edition.

PS: I edited the formula and hence re-wrote the entire article.

PS II: I changed the formula for batting - increased denominator from 20k to 30k. That bought the batting scores of last year to about par on bowling. Thus, last year's best performer was Sohail Tanveer & not Stuart Marsh, and that's the way it should be.

There is no point in re-doing all the graphs. I shall do another blog once the tournament is over. Will show the revised charts then.

Fake Disappointment - Rediff & IPL Indian Coaches

Rediff asks this provocative article - Why do all IPL teams have foreign coaches? Why not even one Indian coach. Let's see. I examined the list of most prominent Cricketers who played between 1980 & 2000 (at least 10 Test matches or 40 ODIs) and have retired. This is the classification of their status.

• Coaching (6): Venkatesh Prasad, Robin Singh, Pravin Amre, WV Raman, Syed Kirmani, Kharsan Ghavri
• TV Career (10): Nikhil Chopra, Saba Karim, Vinod Kambli, Sanjay  Manjrekar, Maninder Singh, Arun Lal, Ravi Shastri, Sunil Gavaskar, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Ajay Jadeja
• Administration (11): Javagal Srinath (match referee), V Raju (selector), Kiran More (ex-selector), K Srikkanth (selector), Shivlal Yadav (Hyd Team Admin), Yashpal Sharma (selector), Dilip Vengsarkar (ex-selector), Brijesh Patel (ex-selector), G Viswanath (match referee), Chetan Chauhan (Team manager), Narendra Hirwani (selector)
• ICL (5): Nayan Mongia, Sandeep Patil, Madan Lal, Roger Binny, Kapil Dev
• Politics (2): Mohammad Azharuddin, Chetan Sharma, Kirti Azad
• Not Known (4): Narendra Hirwani, Manoj Prabhakar, Surinder Amarnath, Mohinder Amarnath
• Business (1): Dilip Doshi.

So, you see that most of the former players don't think Coaching is a great career option. Of these 7, i think at least the following are employed by current IPL coaches in various capacities - Prasad (Bowling Coach - CSK); Robin Singh (fielding coach - HDC); Pravin Amre (co-coach, MI). So, i don't see a reason for too much complaint here. India has a dearth of ex-cricketers who have turned to umpiring & coaching as their focus is mostly on administration.

Not funny

Quick post.

I heard about the Fake IPL Player Blog. The blog cornered space today's edition of The Hindu - in my mind, the most conservative Indian newspaper when it comes to gossips. When i read the blog, i was surprised that it had ZERO humour & was very prosaic. 

A few years back, Drew Bledsoe - an above average American footballer (the closest Indian comparison is Saurav Ganguly!) was replaced by a upcoming, young, good looking, Jessica Simpson-dating Tony Romo. A few weeks later, TonyHomo.com came to life that was a fictional first-hand commentary of Drew Bledsoe (who thinks he is God's gift to mankind!) criticize Tony Romo's actions. Great blog, amazing humour & must-read for even non-American Football fans.

So, to the author of Fake IPL Player blog, you can gain some lessons from TonyHomo. Happy surfing.

Nationalist apologists!

Nationalist apologists are people who disregard history and pout nationalist sentiment to question or explain away half-baked truths or full-fledged lies as FACTS. Here is one from New Zealand:

Paul Lewis writing in New Zealand Herald:

Now that the Indian cricket tour is nearing the end, it's time to ask: Why have we been so nice to them?

The answer to your question. You are returing our favour. Plently of teams in India sweat & cry blood when they see a dusty brown track but that hasn't been a problem for New Zealand because BCCI refused to upset the visitors.

New Zealand played 2 series in India over the last 10 years. In 1999, we played a 3 test match series which ended in 1-0 verdict against New Zealand. In fact, we dished a green top where India (the hosts) were bowled for 83 in the first innings. It wasn't our fault that the black caps refused to take advantage as they were bowled for 215. After that, it was all India, as we piled on 505 (2 centurions - Dravid & Tendulkar with fifties from openers Gandhi & Ramesh) and a predictable draw followed. In the second test match, the spinners ruled the roost and picked 16 wickets. NZ spinners didn't do badly - Vettori picked a 6-for. Tendulkar created a personal record in the third test with his first Test match double century. The game meandered into a meaningless draw thereforth.

In the 2003-04 series, we resumed in the same location & by the looks, the same pitch. It was Dravid's turn for a double century and the bowlers found no support from the pitch. In the second test at Mohali, NZ plundered 630 runs and 4 centuries in the first innings after winning the toss. India however saved the Test with VVS Laxman making a century in the first innings and 67* in the second innings to lead India to safety. Guess, who were the last men standing in the match? The same pair of Laxman-Yuvraj as the second test in 2009 series in New Zealand. Is Laxman becoming a pain for New Zealand after being Aussies tormentor for the last 8 years?

Bottomline: 5 test matches with 4 high scoring draws in India isn't bad. New Zealand received batting wickets in India in their last 2 tours. It is wise on their part to return the compliment else they face turners in their next visit to India. Get the point, Mr. Lewis.

Bow to thee - Master Gambhir

Small quiz: If i were to ask you to name Michael Atherton's best test knock, which would it be?

Wouldn't it be the 185 in Johannesburg - the "Great Escape" / "Great Survival"? Ray Illingworth called it "One of the greatest innings of all time". The basic stats - 185* off 492 balls in 643 minutes. Rest assured, Gambhir's latest 137 off 436 balls in 643 minutes (what a coincidence!) isn't going to be called as one of India's greatest but it does deserve a lot of applause. Gambhir, Sehwag's understudy (unbridled aggression) looked like Dravid's long lost brother or even Gavaskar's nephew!

When i checked Cricinfo Statsguru, Gambhir is in rare company. The list of players who batted 400+ deliveries to save a test or win it is an elite company of 24 innings by 23 players (Andrew Jones from New Zealand achieved this twice!). Gambhir's 643 minutes is the fourth (tied with Atherton) longest & apart from the Gordon Greenidge (226), the other three were match saving innings (following a follow-on declaration). Two have been featured in this blog. Care to know the others - the best was 275 in 878 minutes & 642 balls made by then-South Africa opener & current India coach - Gary Kirsten. The third longest belongs to New Zealand's own Mark Greatbatch who scored 146 in 485 balls and 655 minutes.

Gambhir, don't worry if this innings isn't placed in the same pedestral as Laxman's 281  or Gavaskar's 221 that nearly won the match (the other entries from India in the list of 24!), but your coach & team would know that your innings came very close. In fact, this one deserves to be in Top 10 Indian innings of all time . Also, one more small point - your Delhi teammate & stand-in captain, Virender Sehwag, owes you one. You (with copious help from the seniors) avoided the ugly questions for sehwag post his twin inning collapses against ordinary spin bowling. Encash it now!

PS: I played around the Cricinfo stats tool. To me, "Saving an away test match" is someone batting for over 500 mins (4 session) and 400 balls on foreign soil. That list is even more elite - just 7 "centurion savers"

Sachin & 500 Club

The last line in the Cricinfo stats article made me think of India's 500 performance. The line was:

Thanks largely to Tendulkar's 160, India managed their first 500-plus score in New Zealand

The question i had in my mind was - what is the relationship between India's overseas 500 run record and Sachin's performance in those matches.

Thanks to Cricinfo stats, i soon could tabularize the performance of all countries abroard. Australia (unsurprisingly!) led the way with 46 scores of 500 & above while England (39) and India (27) trail the Aussies. I was surprised that India was ranked so high. Since India prior to 2000 was known as home tigers, i didn't expect them to post huge overseas scores. 

India's record look good. They have scored seven 500s abroad than they allowed their opponents to score at home. Then, i had a hunch when i looked at England (39) and West Indies (26) figures. Maybe, most of these came  from pre-1990 era. So, filtering the above table for Sachin era, the result is startling:

Of India's 27 scores of 500+ in Test Cricket, 22 of them came in the last 19 years. What's more - Sachin played in 19 of these matches (Sachin missed in the 2006 WI tour as well as the 2005 Zimbabwe tour where Sourav & Greg clashed!). India (to my surprise!) has the best record with 22 scores of 500+ and allowing only 7 such scores from it's opponent at home. The 22 scores also indicate the golden period of India's Fab Three/Four/Five. All but one came after the debut of Ganguly & Dravid. Post-Sehwag's introduction, the frequency of these mega-scores have increased. The +15 record indicates that India has adopted better to foreign conditions better than opponents have adjusted to Indian conditions.

In the 19 matches, Sachin's record is phenomenal. His record stands as 19 Matches, 26 Innings, 2368 runs, Average of 124.63, 11 Centuries, 5 fifties and only 1 duck. What a stat! I don't have similar figures for Dravid & Sehwag (am sure, Laxman & Ganguly won't have 100+ average) but will try & put that out soon. India lost only one match - the infamous Sydney test match and won 7 times in 19 matches. Interestingly, India has never won a match pre-Sachin era when it scored 500+ abroad. It drew 4 matches & lost 1 (500 scored after being asked to follow-on with a deficit of 386 runs)

Coming back to the Master - Sachin & the Fab-five performance overseas having a direct link to our away record is probably one of the most underappreciated aspect of Indian cricket (the other - Kumble's contribution to Indian test victories)

Edit: Dravid's record in India's 500+ matches abroad: 19 matches, 25 innings, 2277 runs, Average of 103.50 with 9 centuries and 8 fifties & 1 duck. Which one of these 2 is better? That i am not sure. Dravid however has 3 double-centuries - the famous Adelaide Test match, the famous Rawalpindi Test match and the 217 in Oval while Sachin's 248 in Sydney was a drawn match & 248* against minnows Bangladesh. His near-200s - the 193 in Headingley was made on the foundation of Dravid's spectacular 148 & 194* in Multan was a support role to Sehwag's 309. However Tendulkar has one second inning century (against Sri Lanka) while Dravid has none. So, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I give Tendulkar's record a slight edge over Dravid.

Sehwag's record isn't Bradmansque. That's mainly because it is more hit-or-miss. There are 3 centuries - his 309 Multan special; whirlwind 180 in WI and the 151 second innings special in Adelaide. Apart from these efforts, there is no other significant effort in his 13 matches, 17 innings, 1135 runs, 66.76 average, 3 centuries and 2 fifties.

As i expected, VVS & Ganguly's records weren't extra-ordinary. VVS played 16 matches, 22 innings, 1162 runs, 58.10 average with 4 centuries, 4 fifties and 1 duck. His 148 in Adelaide followed by 178 in Sydney in the 2003-04 Aussie tour and a century in the ill-fated Sydney test showcases his preference for Aussie attack. Against the rest, he has a century in Zimbabwe and some fifties here & there though in his defense, his role at No. 6 gave his too few opportunities. Ganguly however cannot complain about lack of opportunities. He has the worst record of the Fab-5 in matches overseas where India has scored 500+. His stat line of 15 matches, 19 innings, 982 runs, 51.68 average, 3 centuries, 7 fifties and 1 duck doesn't look great. He started off well - 136 in Nottingham in his debut series & 128 in the match at Headingley where Tendulkar & Dravid collected centuries - both in English environment. His only other century kick-started the Ganguly-Chapell spat (century in Zimbabwe). 

Test Cricket Moral Police Force have got their facts wrong!

Vic Marks, Stephen Brenkley, Martin Johnson amongst others have criticized the lifeless pitches on offer in the Carribean where West Indies hold on to a 1-0 lead. After WI won the first, the second abandoned, the last 3 matches have seen pitches where the batsmen can play blind-folded Cricket. The complaints of these gentlemen above don't talk of disparity between bat & ball. These gentlemen talk about the imminent passing away of the great game called Test Cricket. Everytime there is a dull lifeless draw, critics pounce and declare Test Cricket dead.

Unfortunately, these critics probably failed in their history classes or they are Aamir Khan's long lost brothers from the movie Ghajini - suffering from short-term memory loss. 

Test Cricket in the olden days saw worse - slow paced dull draws. Disagree? Since these gentlemen are from England, what better examples than the Indian tours to England in 1990 & 1996. In both these tours, England won the first test match and the remaining 2 matches were boring high-scoring drawn matches. In 1990 series, there were 15 hundreds and 17 fifties in 3 test matches. A total of 4,640 runs were scored in 3 matches for the loss of 82 wickets at an average of 56.58 runs per wicket. The 1996 series was marginally better for the bowlers (mostly English bowlers!) - 8 hundreds and 10 fifties in 3 test matches. A total of 3,214 runs in 3 matches for loss of 93 wickets at 34.45 per wicket. Both these test series, post the first matches were batsmen games and that's the way the host team would have wanted it, to retain the series victory.

My theory is that the pundits have been pampered in the last decade when the win rate for test matches have gone up. Till 1999, there were 1404 test matches played (that didn't involve Zim & Ban) and 864 of these these matches ended in a result (61%). In the last 10 years, 375 matches were played (doesn't include the 2 current matches) and produced results in 269 games (71%). If we were to include Zim & Ban, the rates are 61.4% and 74.8%. 

So, in no shape or form, the last decade has dulled Test Cricket. Test Cricket had boring draws a few years back and will continue to have boring draws in the future. Please don't waste time in writing Test Cricket's obituary just yet.

Blame BCCI, not ICC for Tendulkar's ratings

There has been quite an uproar in India regarding the Test & ODI all-time rankings. What people fail to understand is that the list represents the highest rating ever achieved by a player according to their methodology and as per the list, Sachin's best test & ODI moment have been upstaged by quite a crowd. I have no qualms in the ranking and amused seeing Television commentators looking puffed up and all serious when criticizing anything related to the master. Relax, folks - it is just a ranking. There are better things to channel your anger. Gotcha? (Thanks Palin, this stupid term is the "official" OK in our residence!)

Is the ranking a good reflection of Tendulkar's career. I think so. I feel the following reasons have pulled Tendulkar's rating downwards:

1. The ranking lays importance to wins and Tendulkar hardly saw any of them during the first 10 years of his career outside India. When i checked with Cricinfo Statguru (quite a good tool, i should say), i noticed that India won 1 TEST MATCH AWAY FROM HOME between 1989 and 1998 in Sri Lanka and Tendulkar scored a century in the second innings of the match. In this period, Tendulkar played 39 matches and scored 11 centuries (including 4 in losing cause)
2. BCCI - The eternal problem creator, has a hand in Tendulkar's low rating. BCCI doesn't like Test Cricket as it eats into the time available to them for hosting ODI matches. Else, show me one other nation where tours don't have proper practice matches. BCCI would rather have the Indian team lose the first test match rather than lose revenues on 2 meaningless ODI games. The reason why i hold is multiple:
   

• BCCI guilty is lack of arranging 4/5-game series. Tendulkar has played 10 four-match series and 3 five-match series (8 of these four match series and all three five match series have been abroad) in his career. Thanks to BCCI's indifferent attitude, Sachin has played just 2 four-match series in his career. He made 4 centuries in those 13 matches and averages 65+ in these matches. Reasonable to expect that as 4/5 match series provides platform for improvement on adjustment to conditions. In contrast, records of Steve Waugh (16 four-match series, 12 five-match series and 3 six-match series - 12.5% of his matches are in 4 matches+ test series) and Brian Lara (19 four-match series, 11-five match series and 2 six-match series - 24.4% are in 4 matches+ test series) show they played in longer series than Tendulkar (8.3% of career in 4 matches+ test series). BCCI HAS FAILED TENDULKAR BY NOT HOSTING 4 MATCHES+ SERIES IN INDIA MORE OFTEN.

• In the common period between 1 Jan 1991 and 2 Jan 2004, when all three players played test cricket, the following is the number of test matches played by each country - Australia (148), England (147), West Indies (124), South Africa (112 from 1992), Sri Lanka (106), Pakistan (105), India (103) and NZ (102). Of the 103, India played just 46 matches at home (44/6%) while England (53.75%). Sri Lanka (52.83%), Australia (51.35%), NZ (50.9%) hosted more home games than away games. Should i say anything more? BCCI HAS FAILED TENDULKAR IN NOT PLAYING TEST MATCHES OFTEN ENOUGH.
  

Not that i find Tendulkar to be entirely faultless - he made centuries but not huge centuries. 170 - 190 run band was always a problem for him (every other player would have loved to have that problem!). Tendulkar crossed 150 on 17 occasions but made only 4 double-centuries. He never encashed his opportunity against weak teams (something that everyone should learn from the way Sri Lankan players pummel Zimbabwe & Bangladesh regularly these days!) except for one double-century against Bangladesh in 2004. 

ODI comparison soon (if at all!)

and it continues ...

Can the ICC not learn anything? the game was delayed and some stupid rule implementation by the umpires meant that the match ended after darkness set in ....

and now the ICC president gives a long winding speech ... some 8 mins in all and the crowd is booing quite heavily. also, mr. sonn - along with lara and mcgrath, Inzy also retired from cricket. you could have mentioned that.

why the medals to the match referee and the umpires - they don't deserve it for the bungles at the beginning and end of the match.

Nonsensical ...!

Good riddance World Cup 2007 ... that's what i am thinking as Sri Lanka is forced to play the last 3 overs (more on that later)

It started with the murder of Bob Woolmer and i lost complete interest in the game. The public apathy to a real life loss, exit of India and Pakistan, the high rates for tickets and the stupid rule that disallowed bringing music instruments into the stadium all contributed to terming this as the WORST worldcup ever.

and today was the worst of all ... fittingly for the finals.

(1) Because of rain, the match is reduced to 38 overs. 38 overs for a finals match! comeon - couldn't the WI board and ICC fund floodlights for the finals venue. remember, sydney 1992 and i am sad to see that the cricket administration has not learnt a darn thing. sad., very sad. today should have been a 50 over match or else the match postponed to tomorrow

(2) Not the ICC's fault but what was Set Max officials thinking when they put Mandira bedi in a saree knitted with flags of participating nation. Given the kind of backlash that Sachin Tendulkar had for cutting a cake in the shape of national flag, didn't someone in the production team figure that the saree was bound to create controversy - especially when India flag figured prominently below the knee of Mandira. It was sad to see Mandira come out during the break in a different saree and apologize. The production team needs to owe this 'wardrobe malfunction'.

(3) and the mother of all farcical situations., 3 overs from the end - SL was out of the contest and when the umpires offered light, everyone on Earth and elsewhere thought that the match was over. Except for the 2 people in funny clothes called UMPIRES. They were going to arm-twist everyone by insisting that we comeback tomorrow to play or play in complete darkness. Stupid., maybe the rule book should state that COMMON SENSE should be used by umpires and everyone involved in the game. They shoo-ed off construction workers trying to put together the podium and even when Jayawardane pleaded, they were struck in their bone-headed decision. In less than a year, we have 2 incidents where umpires occupied the wrong place in the match - centerstage. i guess the match referee could have sent a word to the umpires to put the nonsense to rest but he was equal in the task of acting like a ... (never mind)

Congrats Australia, you are deserving champions. Congrats Sri Lanka - there is no shame in losing to a team like the Aussies. Congrats to South Africa and New Zealand for their semi-finals appearance. Congrats to Bangladesh and Ireland for their upsets and unexpected entry into super-8.

Shame to the cricket administrators, team officials (i am looking squarely in your eyes, Greg Chappell) and umpires for lessening the repute of the game. the game would be better served with less interference and 'value-add' from you folks. for not seeing you folks, i am happy that the WC is over ....

BTW., ESPN (US Sports NW, not ESPN India) wrote an article on Bob's murder. Nice read as it gives a perspective of an outsider viewing the game. Click here

Dude., learn something .. BCCI will never change!

Man, the rant in this blog is going to hit the roof. BCCI selected teams for Bangladesh Tour. I am very sad that BCCI is such a backward looking organization that there is virtually no hope for Indian cricket sans a few brilliant player. The process, logic and methodology of player selection is so crude that it makes me wonder how at all, are we able to even etch a win outside India

After the World cup debacle, senior players were likely to be axed to assure the Indian fans. Why? Indian fans are the most obnoxious, lazy and illogical fan in cricket. Even when their team has no chance (say against Australia), they want their team to score 600 runs, bowl australia out for 25 runs.

Anywayz, BCCI president wanted 'youth' and what he and we got is nothing close to youth? Some critical examination of the 2 squads.

ODI squad: Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid (capt), Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Manoj Tiwary, Dinesh Mongia, Piyush Chawla, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Zaheer Khan, RP Singh.

• What is Uthappa doing in the squad? His scores in ODI cricket are 86, 12, 0, 70, 28, DNB, 7, 52, 9, 3, 18. The ones underlined are the WI WC 2007 scores. The 5 scores before that happened in the 2007 home series against WI and SL. If you analyze, he made to the WC side on the back of the 70 and has done nothing (as in rested on his laurels). What is he doing in the squad?
• Sehwag - Needed captain's reco for WC 2007 Squad. Needed one more to make it to the Ban tour. Now, let us say he scores 3 centuries in ODIs, what do you do? include him in the test squad? I think Sehwag is the right player on the wrong team. more later.
• Gautam Gambhir - What is he doing in the squad. Do you know who he is? Lemme help. He is the guy who lost out to Uthappa on the WC ticket. He had nearly booked it till his form failed him in the home series in WI. He has never played ODI outside the sub-continent. Outside India, he averages 20.5 in 8 games with 1 fifty. If say he hits a century, are you going to take him to England?
• Dinesh Mongia - So he is youth. got it! You want to know something. Between 2003 WC and 2007 WC, mongia played 12 games and he was recently tried and 'discarded' (as only BCCI can do!) after the SA tour. What is he going to do? You know how 'young' he is? 30 yrs.
• RP Singh - Why was he not there in the squad to the WC? How come the selectors thought of him suddenly.

Correct Decisions - Dravid, Dinesh Karthik, Yuvraj Singh, Sreesanth, Munaf, Zaheer, Dhoni
Debuts: Piyush Chawla, Manoj Tiwary
Wrong Decisions: Sehwag, Gambhir, Mongia
Doubtful: RP Singh
'Replacements': Gambhir by Tendulkar/Ganguly. Sehwag & Mongia by 2 middle-order batsmen (What happened to Ambati Rayadu?)

Test squad: Wasim Jaffer, Dinesh Karthik, Rahul Dravid (capt), VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Anil Kumble, Sreesanth, Zaheer Khan, VRV Singh, Ramesh Powar, Rajesh Pawar, Munaf Patel.

The test squad is even funnier:

• Wassim Jaffer and Karthik as openers? What happened to Gambhir? What will happen to the England tour in July? If one of these openers hits a century, will you take them to England? Sehwag was the best opener we had on this side of 2000 and we dumped him for ODIs? Why? He had done consistenly well in test cricket (well .. atleast bradmansque in 1st innings!) and has lost form in ODI. So what do the selectors do? dump him for Test and take him for ODI. It happens only in India
• What both Sourav and Yuvraj on the team? There is place only for one. You could have avoided sourav here. 'rested' for tests and picked for 'ODIs'
• What is VRV singh doing in test squad? why the distribution of caps across tests and odis between the 2 singhs? what good is it going to do for either of them, except to sulk around the dressing room? Whichever of these can expliot seaming pitches will make it to England., right? But you dont get those wickets in Bangladesh, do you?
• Ramesh Powar for test cricket. BCCI has sent a strong sign that they will take only kumble for england test tour. Powar, we enjoyed your stay in Bangladesh. thank you very much

Correct: Dravid, Karthik, Dhoni, VVS, Sachin, Yuvraj, Kumble, Sreesanth, Zaheer

Debut: Rajesh Pawar
Wrong Decisions: Gambhir, Ramesh Powar, Ganguly
Replacements: Sehwag for Gambhir, Piyush or powar stays or whosoever - it doesn't matter!, Ganguly - extra opener (gambhir himself) or bowler (piyush/powar) or Kaif/new middle order guy.

Thus we see that BCCI has given a grand total of 3 new caps, has 6 retreads and retained 19 of the previous squad for the tour. This after they promised 'youth'. Neither did they deliver on youth nor did they put together a good team to take to England come july and like every other time, the players have to catch up for the mistakes of the board...